Moscow plans its own mini-Olympics. Will Russians be satisfied?
Russian athletes may still be banned from competing with their national flag or anthem in this year’s Olympics. But Moscow has a plan to keep its sports institutions intact, its athletes busy and well paid, and, it hopes, Russian fans satisfied.
In September, just a month after the 2024 Paris Olympics, Russia will launch the World Friendship Games, a Soviet-inspired extravaganza that looks like a full-scale substitute games meant to defy the International Olympic Committee’s ban. Russian officials insist that it isn’t intended to replace the Olympics, but rather that Russian, Belarusian, and other voluntary international participants will compete in many Olympic categories for large cash prizes and other honors.
Nonetheless, Moscow’s decision to launch these games and several, and offered a select number of Russian athletes a dubious choice between taking part in these patriotic events or trying to compete in Paris as “neutral” or independent contestants.
